Prepaid short messaging

Abstract

A prepaid messaging solution which uses open networking standards (e.g., TCP / IP) and which supports pre-payment of enhanced Internet messaging services. The disclosed prepaid architectures and methods accurately determine if a subscriber has sufficient account balance to deliver a complete short message, prior to delivery of the message. The short message may be prevented from being delivered (either at the source end or at the destination end) if insufficient funds are in the subscriber's account. A prepaid tariff engine is preferably extensible over a TCP / IP network, and supports remote interaction with the SMSC and web chat servers for the purpose of applying a real-time billing charge for each message. A service provider may create subscriber classes of service that define and uniquely identify subscriber rate and / or tariffing plans used to apply real-time billing charges for sending or receiving of messages. The prepaid short message tariff engine determines the appropriate message billing based upon, e.g., flat rate per message, message count (e.g., 10 messages @ $ 5.00), character count (e.g., $0.01 / char.), Time of Day, Day of Week (i.e., peak & non-peak hours), type of message, and / or mobile location (i.e., network point code). The prepaid short messaging service preferably supports Internet web page access to subscriber's relating to their short messaging account balances and status maintained in the prepaid short messaging database of the prepaid messaging server.

Description

[0001]This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60 / 185,053 to Titus et al., filed Feb. 25, 2000, entitled “Prepaid Messaging”, the entirety of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]This invention relates generally to short messaging systems. More particularly, it relates to prepaid billing of short message services.[0004]2. Background of Related Art[0005]Prepaid voice services exist. In a prepaid voice scenario, as part of the establishment of a telephone call, a service queries a database for a particular subscriber to determine if there is at least a given amount of funds available to pay for a call about to be made. In such a prepaid voice scenario, the ultimate cost of the desired telephone call is not known at that time, because the caller may not know the exact length of time that they would like to speak. Thus, a ‘minimum’ cost of the telephone call given the loca...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

In such a prepaid voice scenario, the ultimate cost of the desired telephone call is not known at that time, because the caller may not know the exact length of time that they would like to speak.

Ultimately, if the account balance is not replenished in time, the telephone call will be terminated due to lack of funds.

While this may be advantageous to the subscriber, the wireless carrier service does not recover costs with respect to that voice message.

Nevertheless, while prepayment for voice telephone calls has been accomplished, existing technologies have not applied the concepts of pre-payment to the world of short messaging (e.g., Internet messaging delivery services) as have prepaid wireless voice & calling cards.

The lack of pre-payment service for messaging increases the possibility for fraudulent billing with respect to payment collections, particularly with respect to the high demand for wireless information services.

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